Related Biomes
Yellow-cheeked Vole
Yellow-cheeked vole, Microtus xanthognathus
The yellow-cheeked vole, or taiga vole, is an extant species of rodent that is currently found in central Alaska and northwestern Canada. As with many other rodents, this species serves as a good proxy indicator of local paleoenvironmental conditions, and its presence in Wisconsinan-aged deposits in the Midwestern U.S. indicates that regional temperatures were much cooler during this period.
Yellow-cheeked vole, Microtus xanthognathus, study skin in the zoological collections of the Illinois State Museum, Springfield.
Length: 18-21 cm (7-8.25 in)
Weight: 90-115 g (3.1-4 oz)
Physical Description:
The yellow-cheeked vole is a large, mouse-like rodent with yellow cheeks, fuzzy brown or gray fur and a short tail. It is roughly the size of a hamster and the largest North American vole.
This rodent prefers the cool, damp environment of boreal marshes and forests (the taiga), and for this reason is often called the taiga vole. They require areas with an abundant winter food supply in the form of rhizomes, particularly those of Equisetum and Epilobium, and good burrowing conditions, such as that provided by heavy moss ground cover (Conroy and Cook 1999).
Yellow-cheeked voles are herbivores who prefer grasses, lichens, and seeds. They will cache rhizomes of plants such as horsetail (Equisetum) and Epilobium to use as food during winter, and supplement these caches with foraging below snow cover. Grasses, horsetails and berries appear to be the preferred summer foods of this rodent (Conroy and Cook 1999).
These animals live in colonies and dig deep underground burrows with food and nesting chambers. They build long runways from the entrance to these burrows that can be 50-75 m long and crisscross the local area. They are active in winter, and create runways under the snow. This species is very vocal, especially when approached by intruders.
Yellow-cheeked voles had a much more southerly and easterly distribution during the Wisconsin Ice Age than they currently enjoy. They have been recovered from late Pleistocene sites as far south as Arkansas and Tennessee and as far east as Virginia and central Pennsylvania.
As temperatures warmed towards the end of the Pleistocene, the yellow-cheeked voles followed the retreat of their preferred habitat northwestwards to their current range in central Alaska and northwestern Canada.
Yellow-cheeked voles serve as an important indicator of cooler conditions in the midwestern U.S. during the late Pleistocene. These rodents have been recovered from several sites in this region, including Peccary Cave in northwestern Arkansas, Cheek Bend Cave in central Tennessee, Welsh Cave in northern Kentucky, Bat Cave in central Missouri, Megenity Peccary Cave and the Prairie Creek site in southern Indiana, Meyer Cave in southern Illinois, Eagle Cave and the Elkader site in western Iowa, Moscow Fissure in southern Wisconsin and the Sheriden Pit site in northern Ohio.
Conroy, C., Cook, J. 1999. Microtus xanthognathus. Mammalian Species 627: 1-5.
Related Animals:
